


Summer Nights In Paris

by Smokeycut



Category: X-Force, X-Men
Genre: F/F, X-Men Femslash Week 2018, mentions of cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 08:32:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14745447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokeycut/pseuds/Smokeycut
Summary: Once, Cluster hurt Betsy in the most cruel way a person could be hurt. Now, after they've reunited, she has something to say.





	Summer Nights In Paris

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5 Prompt: Summer

Summer nights in France carried the most wonderful feeling in the entire world, as far as Betsy was concerned. Nothing could match the calming heat and the soft breeze that mingled together and created a feeling so soothing, so wonderful, that it just couldn’t be matched anywhere else. The stars up above her were like lightning bugs, dancing in the sky. She almost felt like she could reach out and touch them, and watch them buzz away from their current positions.

If she could help it, Betsy would like to stay there forever. Up on that rooftop, her hands gripping an iron railing and her long purple hair flowing gently in the night. She felt more alive there than anywhere else. No adrenaline rush could compare to just… standing there. Feeling the beauty and the splendor and the simple wonder of life at it’s most calm. No, nothing could compare to _that_.

And behind her, with a slender hand on Betsy’s waist, with a pair of soft lips pressed against the crook of Betsy’s neck, with a giggle so sweet and intoxicating… was the woman who called her there. The woman who had first opened up Betsy’s heart and shown her something that she had never realized was there before. Clad all in white and black, with hair the color of chestnuts that reached near her waist, cooing in Betsy’s ear…

“Cluster?” Betsy asked, her voice low, steady and yet with a certain softness to it.

“Mm? Yes?” Cluster purred. She withdrew slightly and moving around so that she stood at Betsy’s side, her arm still wrapped around the telepath’s waist.

“Why’d you call me?” Betsy asked her, looking Cluster in the eyes. “Was there any real reason, or was it just for this?”

“You say that like they can’t be one and the same,” Cluster said. She smiled, but her eyes betrayed the worry in her heart. She had missed Betsy more than words could ever describe. She had made mistakes, she couldn’t deny that. A long string of decisions and deceptions that betrayed Betsy in one of the cruelest ways. If she could go back and slap herself in the face, scream at her younger self to do things differently, Cluster would do it in a heartbeat. But she couldn’t change the past, only try to repair the burnt bridge and see if it led her down a brighter path to a future where they could be happy together once again.

“Cluster…” Betsy sighed, and her brow furrowed. “Just tell me what you want to say,” she told her.

Cluster opened her mouth as if to reply, but no words would come. She tore her gaze away from Betsy and pulled her hand away from her hip, and looked to the ground. Her head raced, countless words and feelings bouncing around like pinballs. She thought of how utterly stunning Betsy looked with nothing but starlight illuminating her. She thought of how, ever since she first came into being, Betsy occupied a permanent place in her heart. She thought of how she longed to spend her life with Betsy, be it as _thieves_ or as _heroes_ or just as two _normal women_ , doing perfectly normal things. She thought of all the things she had to say to Betsy, but that she simply couldn’t.

“If you’ve nothing to say, perhaps I ought to just leave,” Betsy muttered. Not so much frustrated with Cluster as she was with herself for how she came running the moment she got her call. Maybe, Betsy thought, she had been wrong to think that this relationship, one that had once meant so much to her, could be salvaged. She turned away, and began to make her way towards the rooftop exit.

“I am sorry,” Cluster whispered. She couldn’t be sure if Betsy had heard what she said, but with a deep breath she forged on, and forced herself to continue. “I am _sorry_. For everything. For hurting you so. For being so caught up in _myself_ and my own _mess_ that I didn’t think of the _pain_ I was causing you. I… I _am_ sorry, Betsy. I told you once that I _longed_ to be kind to you. I still do. I _always will_.”

“An apology then,” Betsy noted, stopping in her tracks with her hand on the doorknob. Just one twist, and a pull, and she’d be able to walk down the stairwell and leave Cluster behind once and for all. But something kept her from doing that. A tug at her heartstrings, with the metaphorical fingers being Cluster’s words of regret. “You called me here to apologize?” She asked.

“I called you here because I wanted you to know that I think the world of you. That I would _steal_ the world for you, or any glittering gem you wanted, or… or nothing at all, ever again, if that’s what would please you.” Cluster wiped at her eyes with a gloved hand, trying her damnedest to maintain some semblance of composure as tears began to stream down her flushed cheeks. “Anything and everything I have, Betsy, would be yours… if you’d allow me only to give them to you.”

Betsy sighed, then looked over her shoulder at Cluster. She thought back to the moment that she first realized how she felt about the gentlewoman thief. The realization, all that time ago, that each and every part of Fantomex that she adored had been distilled into the form of just one woman. In that moment, Betsy had been consumed by her love for Cluster. And there, on that rooftop, she felt that overwhelming sense of adoration and longing rise up in her chest again. She sagged her shoulders and resigned herself to the emotions that threatened to crack her heart open and give Cluster a path to wiggle her way back inside.

“I just want one thing from you, Cluster,” Betsy said softly as she made her way back towards the other woman. “All I want, all I’ll ever need… just give me your heart. Unwavering, everlasting… forever _faithful_. Give me your heart, Cluster, and don’t make me regret accepting it,” she implored. Tears welled up in her own eyes, and she batted them away. A single hand raised up to cup Cluster’s cheek and a thumb brushed across her face to wipe away her tears.

Cluster nodded silently. Slowly, she and Betsy leaned in to meet one another. Lips locked with lips and hands held hands. The gentle night air tickled their skin and elevated their feelings further. For a moment, just a moment, they felt as though they were standing among the stars. For the first time in a long time, they both felt well and truly alive.


End file.
